Thursday, January 25, 2007

Commanding General: Time for Americans to 'quit complaining'; War could take 'nine years'

FORT STEWART, Ga. - As his troops head into a third combat tour in Iraq, the commanding general of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division said Thursday war-weary Americans should "quit complaining" and prepare themselves for the conflict to continue several more years.

"We're now in a debate about whether or not the third deployment is too much and whether you should have a year between (deployments) in dwell time," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters. "I believe it's time for us to quit complaining and focus on doing our duty."

Lynch said it's not soldiers and their spouses who are complaining about the war, but rather people in "outside circles" from the military.

More than 4,000 soldiers from the Fort Stewart division's 1st Brigade Combat Team deployed earlier this month to Kuwait and will soon begin moving into Iraq, where the division of 19,000 troops has already served two tours, including the 2003 invasion.

Two other brigades of the 3rd Infantry are scheduled to follow in March and May, their deployments accelerated by two to three months because of President Bush's plan to send 21,500 additional U.S. forces to Iraq.

Speaking at a news conference, Lynch cautioned that Americans shouldn't expect the troop surge to bring a quick resolution to the war. He said success in Iraq could take more than twice as long as the nearly four years American troops have already spent there.

"If we let the American people realize ... we as a nation are engaged in a long war, that historically it takes at least nine years to complete a counterinsurgency operation, then the American people will be supportive," Lynch said.